


Advent: Rent

by FyrMaiden



Series: Klaine Advent 2014 [15]
Category: Glee
Genre: Artificial Intelligence, Boyfriend for Hire, M/M, Robot Boyfriend
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-24
Updated: 2014-12-24
Packaged: 2018-03-03 06:58:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,902
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2842136
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FyrMaiden/pseuds/FyrMaiden
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Written for the Klaine Advent 2014 Prompt: Rent</p>
<p>(Robot Boyfriend/Boyfriend for Hire)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Advent: Rent

Blaine Anderson has had a long day; the last thing he needs when he gets home is the flashing light on his communicator alerting him to the presence of a message. He dumps his bags on a chair in the kitchen, pours himself a large glass of wine from his chiller, and glares balefully at the insistent dot blinking on and off in the darkness across the room. Part of him wonders why Jez hasn’t dealt with it, and the rest of him knows. The sun is down, curfew has started, and Jez’s transport is missing from their twinport. If Jez isn’t here, he’s not coming. Blaine finishes his wine, scrubs a hand through the neat finish of his perfectly gelled hair, and decides the message can wait. He needs a shower and his bed. If Jez were here, he’d also like a massage and his mouth on his body, but he’s not.

Naked in the shower, he briefly deliberates with ordering a masseur. His shoulders feel tighter than a shower will ease. But it’s late, and he’s tired, and he decides to sleep it off. The sun will rise again tomorrow, and all will be well. He’s sure of that if nothing else.

*

The following morning, however, finds him stood barefoot in his kitchen, coffee in one hand and toast in his other. He puts the coffee down and resets the communicator by hand, issues the play command once more. Jez’s face appears in the holoprojector, his eyes staring straight through the space Blaine stands in, and he says the words again.

"Hey, B. Um. This isn’t how I wanted to do this. I waited as long as I could. I, um. I think I should - I’m moving out. I think we went too fast. I’m not ready for all of you. Um. Look, I hope we can still be friends? I don’t… Wow. How do people do this?"

Blaine stares at the communicator as the face disappears again. Jez and his stupid ringlets that Blaine’s hands had loved. Jez and his stupid inoffensive smile. ‘How do people do this?’ Not usually by holomessage, that’s how. He throws his toast into the food compactor in his kitchen, washes his hands, and goes back to his room.

In the cold light of morning, it is painfully apparent that Jez Holloway has, indeed, left. Glittering on his vanity by the window is his key. Blaine weighs it in his palm, and then hefts it toward a potted fern. As his anger ebbs, his emotions take over. On the floor of his personal bedroom, Blaine Anderson clutches his knees and cries.

*

The thing that really irritates Blaine, when he’s calmer and more rational, is the timing. Blaine is being honoured with an award for his work in two days, has a plus one for the meal and the ceremony which he has already accepted. If Jez hadn’t wanted to go, that would have been fine. Blaine would have asked Tina to come. He can’t now, though, knows she has a date with a dancer that she’s enthusiastic about. He knows Sam would feel awkward at the event, even if he’d be committed and present. He’s the honouree at a ceremony, and he has no one to cheer for him.

He’d laugh if it wasn’t so depressing.

It’s whilst he’s sitting in traffic listening to the radio that he thinks, he could always take Tina up on her offer to hook him up with one her Programmable Partners if it became urgent. She has a full stock of integratable humanoid AI, each one individual and fully customisable to your requirements. All he’d have to give her would be physical specifics. It’s not, perhaps, the worst idea he’s ever had. He mulls the notion over as he picks his way incrementally across the city, humming along to the radio as he does so.

*

By the time Blaine is ensconced at his workstation, he has made a decision. He can’t go to alone, and it’s too short notice to ask one of his friends to come with him. He has Tina’s face on his mobile communicator before he can double think himself, her smile bright. There are a lot of things he loves about Tina, but the genuine warmth of her smile is one his favourites.

“Blainey-days!” she greets him, and he can feel his own smile broaden in response.

“Tay-tay,” he says, and presses a button on his desk to swing the door of his office closed, waits for the click of the locking mechanism before he speaks again.

“I need to speak to you about something,” he continues, and she nods her head, gestures for him to continue. “You know I have this award presentation, yes? I need to ask you about hiring one of your ‘bots?”

“I thought you said Jez was going?” she says, looking confused.

“That was before he took all of his belongings and broke up with me by holomessage yesterday night,” Blaine says, and tries not to sound bitter. Tina’s mouth becomes a straight line. She’s been there, has a “Make Change Forever” tattoo to prove that boys are stupid. Once, it had been her boyfriend’s name.

“Oh, Blaine,” she empathises. And then, “But I do have something perfect for you. I took delivery of him yesterday. Just tell me a time and I’ll have him at your apartment right on time.”

“Can you make it eighteen hundred? So I have time to make sure everything is perfect?”

“I wouldn’t supply you with anything less, B,” she says. She sounds affronted, but her eyes are still laughing. “I can get him there by then, though. I’ll send him one of my best drivers. Just make sure you’re home to see him in. I won’t have them standing around on doorsteps.”

Blaine nods and agrees, and signs off. Irrespective, he can’t help the way that the conversation settles uncomfortably in his chest.

*

The young man that rings the doorbell is, perhaps, one of the most beautiful things that Blaine has ever seen. He’s narrow, and seems taller than he is, his hair swept upwards off of his face in a perfect pompadour. Blaine hadn’t known exactly what to expect, but this isn’t it. He’s seen some of Tina’s stock before, and they’ve always had tells, glitches in their behaviour. This boy’s smile stretches his face, and the swirling, changeable blue of his eyes seems almost believably alive. Blaine feels his breath huff out of him as he reminds himself again that this boy isn’t real. Beneath his skin, he is little more than a toaster.

“I’m Blaine,” he says uselessly, and holds out his hand. The man opposite him blinks and looks at the hand for a moment before taking it.

“Kurt,” he says. Just one syllable, but Blaine knows he would listen to that sound forever. He also knows he’s lost the poor fight he was putting up against his own knowledge. Kurt might not be human, but that doesn’t mean he’s not real. Kurt smiles just for him, and releases his hand. Blaine steps back to let him in, and signs the delivery strip for the driver.

In his kitchen, Kurt stands very still. Blaine watches him from the doorway, thinks he looks almost turned off. He coughs quietly, and Kurt starts, turns his head to look over his shoulder with a gentle smile. “Can I get you anything?” Blaine asks, and Kurt shakes his head.

“No, thank you,” he says. “I was fully serviced before leaving. Do you need anything?”

Blaine shakes his head. “No. Um. I’ll just - Please. Make yourself comfortable.” He points to his lounge, and the sofa within it. Kurt inclines his head.

“Thank you,” he says. Blaine watches him walk, admires the ease of his stride, the mechanics of him and his proportions. He is wonderful. Tina must be very proud of him. He deliberately does not think about how much a unit like Kurt costs, or he’ll be terrified to take him out of the front door again.

*

Take him out he does, though. Blaine finds himself matching the fabric of his bow tie to Kurt’s jacket. He makes a mental note to thank Tina for her costuming choices, knows that this is not merely a happy coincidence. Tina dressed Kurt very deliberately, nipping his clothes to accentuate all of his best parts. Blaine remembers well her propensity for tailoring when they were in high school together. Blaine finds himself actually proud to be at his gala with Kurt as his date, is happy to let Kurt interact with his friends. He finds himself sitting and listening to Kurt talk, more in love with his voice with every syllable he utters. When he leaves Kurt at the table to get himself a drink at the bar, one of the women he works with touches his arm.

“It’s good to see you happy,” she says, and Blaine frowns slightly. “He seems good for you. You haven’t seemed so relaxed in a long time.”

Blaine thanks her and sips his drink slowly as he heads back to the table. Kurt is passing. That’s always been the ultimate aim of AI, and with Kurt it seems to have succeeded.

It’s another thing he’ll have to remember to tell Tina about.

*

Blaine can tell when Kurt is starting to wear out and shut down. His responses grow slower, more clipped, and the cerulean swirl of his eyes starts to seem more mechanical than magical. Blaine rests a hand on his arm, and Kurt’s head turns towards his. “Time to get you home,” Blaine says quietly, and Kurt cants his head.

“I’ve had a good night,” he says in response, and Blaine smiles. The response doesn’t quite fit, and he wonders if perhaps this is Kurt’s glitch. His charge does not yet, perhaps, fully match his capability. He is fascinating, though.

“I’m glad,” Blaine says. He’s surprised, slightly, to find that he actually means it. He has had a good night. Far better than he was expecting, anyway. Kurt has been lively and engaging, has eaten everything and not got drunk to cope with the crowd of strangers surrounding him. He has put on a show, but not upstaged Blaine at his own ceremony, and it’s been wonderful to have someone with him that he feels proud to be with. He’d forgotten what that was like with Jez, who had always wanted to leave as soon as they could politely do so. He smiles to himself at that, the corners of his mouth turning up. Blaine Anderson’s perfect date is a damn robot. Obviously.

By the time Blaine has Kurt in a taxi, he is blinking and yawning, and Blaine thinks he can almost hear his gears turning. Still, when he rests his head on Blaine’s shoulder and lets his eyes close, Blaine lets himself believe that this is a first date. It feels good.

*

It takes Blaine three days to log on to Tina’s catalogue and find Kurt’s number and price. Kurt is expensive, and Blaine wonders whether Tina would be willing to let him pay for him by installments, or if she would be willing to sell him at all. The one thing Blaine knows with absolute clarity is that he would like to get the chance to explore Kurt’s functionality better, however that is possible.


End file.
